Supreme Court halts Missouri execution

Associated Press

May 21, 2014

BONNE TERRE, Mo. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday halted the execution of a Missouri inmate with a rare medical condition who challenged the state's refusal to disclose the source of its lethal injection drug.

The justices said a lower federal court needs to take another look at the case of Russell Bucklew, whose execution would've been the nation's first since last month's botched execution in Oklahoma.

Bucklew had been scheduled to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the 1996 killing of a man during a violent crime spree, but Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blocked the execution late Tuesday to give the full court time to consider the matter.

By law, Missouri has a 24-hour window to carry out a scheduled execution, and the ruling from the full Supreme Court on Wednesday evening meant the state Supreme Court would have to set a new execution date if Missouri is to carry out the punishment.

Bucklew, 46, suffers from a rare congenital condition — cavernous hemangioma — that causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as tumors in his nose and throat.

His attorneys say this and the secrecy surrounding the state's lethal injection drug combine to make for an unacceptably high chance of something going wrong during his execution. Bucklew said last week that he was scared of what might happen during the process.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Today's stay of execution will give the lower federal courts time to consider Mr. Bucklew's claim that his execution would violate his rights under the Eighth Amendment to be free from cruel and unusual punishment,” Lindsay Runnels, an attorney for Bucklew, said in an email.

The next scheduled executions in the United States are June 18 — in Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania, though the Pennsylvania execution likely will be delayed.

During Oklahoma's April 29 execution, inmate Clayton Lockett's vein collapsed, and he writhed on the gurney before dying of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after the start of a procedure that typically takes roughly one-fourth of that time to complete.

Missouri switched from a three-drug protocol to the single drug pentobarbital late last year. None of the six inmates executed since Missouri made the change had shown outward signs of pain or suffering.